


Mirrors

by morrezela



Series: The Fairy Tale 'Verse [11]
Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Fairy Tales, M/M, Magic, Royalty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-29
Updated: 2013-04-29
Packaged: 2017-12-09 21:40:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/778267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morrezela/pseuds/morrezela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fairytale AU: Jensen waits for Baron Morgan to come and prove to the kingdom what Jensen’s heart already knows.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mirrors

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Mentions of OC death.
> 
> Reading Staircases, Portraits, Journeys, Hopes, Betrayals, Rescues, Homes, Memories, Duties and Returns first is highly advisable.
> 
> All mistakes you find are my own.

The stone walls of the castle had never felt so unsupportive. Not once had Jensen had reason to feel spiteful towards the old building. Even when he had been nothing but a sorcerer, he had known that it was his home. But now it felt like a prison. Cold and impersonal, it trapped him inside itself like a great snake swallowing its meal.

Jensen had been forbidden to see Jared again. Whispers of his infatuation with the carpenter echoed down the corridors like the chambermaids had forgotten that their prince had ears. Some said he was bewitched, others claimed it was his pure love that had brought Jared back from his grave. Neither was right, but Jensen felt no need to correct them.

All he wanted was to set eyes on Jared’s face again. The man’s face danced in Jensen’s vision whether his eyes were opened or closed, but that visage was made only from imagination and memory. He yearned to cure himself of the taunting images by looking at the real thing, but he was forbidden.

Only the king could give orders over his son, and order he had. Jensen was not allowed to go one foot beyond the central wall of the castle. Jared was at least three walls beyond that. Jensen’s father was no fool. He knew his son better than he should given the number of years that they had not been in familial company.

Even visiting his children, now tucked away sweetly in their beds for the night, did not quell Jensen’s urge to visit his former friend. The three of them looked so innocent, but they’d caused a scandal of their own when they were born. Jensen had known that his wife would not live long after their birth. She had told him as much, and her only guilt in the matter was that she was relieved to go, leaving her children behind.

Even though they had never loved each other, Jensen had mourned her passing. She was an ally, somebody who understood his difficulties in letting go of the one he actually loved. Of course, his wife had also taken matters into her own hands to secure his progeny’s place on the throne. Twins were common enough in Veldeer families, but Hartrude hadn’t been the type to leave her pregnancy to chance.

With her poor health, having twins would practically sign her death warrant. She hadn’t cared and had gone to magically assisted lengths to ensure that her first fawn’s birth would be followed by a second fawn’s birth within hours, not months or years. She had told Jensen as much. But even Hartrude had looked surprised when her ailing body began to contract again after their second child came squalling into the world.

Triplets were rare. Jensen’s youngest was far smaller than her siblings, and didn’t stop crying for days after her birth. Hartrude closed her eyes for the last time moments after seeing her tiny face. The whole event was something that the entire kingdom couldn’t quit talking about.

Some called it tragic, others began to whisper against the practice of sorcery, yet others blamed Jensen for forcing Hartrude to do his bidding in the matter. A select few claimed that his youngest was cursed, an evil spawn set in her mother’s womb along with Jensen’s rightful heirs. She was sent to destroy them all.

It was absolute hogwash, and Jensen had made his feelings on the subject quite clear. Never had he seen fit to punish any of his citizens. They were his to protect, and they were not to be in fear of him. But his children were not something that he would abide being abused, not even from a wagging tongue.

Jensen’s word was as good a law, and it was obeyed. As much as there were whispers about his children, his own valor was undisputed. Few people would dare come against the combination of his honor and title.

Jared’s own name was beyond blessed. Where Jensen was the beloved prince, Jared’s heroism was romanticized. He had no title or breeding to speak of, only a strong heart beating in his chest.

The problem was that Jared’s heart had ceased beating. Jensen is still haunted in his dreams by the sight of Jared’s corpse. There was no doubt in his mind then that Jared had been dead. There was still no doubt about it.

That knowledge was what kept him from barging down to the room where Jared was being kept. He understood the wariness of his guard. The tree that was standing out in the slowly freezing pool of water in the gardens made him more nervous than any of his citizens. Jensen had seen the power of that cursed tree, and he had no desire for it to be within a thousand kingdoms of his own.

Still, there was a part of him that could not hate it completely. Whatever else it had done or been used to do, it had brought Jared back to him.

Oh, he knew that the people charged with his safety thought him to be foolish. Their prince could not possibly know that it was Jared sitting so very near him, eating bread from Jensen’s kitchen. The man was mute, after all, incapable of speaking. Who was to say that Jared was not some apparition brought about by the magic of the tree? Had not Jensen thought Jared to be a figment of his own imagination when he had seen Jared in the woods?

But Jensen’s heart knew better. It was silly, perhaps even foolish to believe, but he did anyway.

“I love him,” Jensen whispered to the large mirror in his bedchambers. His bodyguards would not have heard the sound, soft as it was, but the mirror saw the movement of his mouth. It was his first witness to his confession of love, and if Baron Morgan would only hurry his horses a little more, it would not be his last.


End file.
